README.md

PG Partition Manager

pg_partman is an extension to create and manage both time-based and serial-based table partition sets. Sub-partitoning is also supported. Child table & trigger function creation is all managed by the extension itself. Tables with existing data can also have their data partitioned in easily managed smaller batches. Optional retention policy can automatically drop partitions no longer needed.
A background worker (BGW) process is included to automatically run partition maintenance without the need of an external scheduler (cron, etc) in most cases.

All bug reports, feature requests and general questions can be directed to the Issues section on Github. Please feel free to post here no matter how minor you may feel your issue or question may be. - https://github.com/keithf4/pg_partman/issues

If you're looking for a partitioning system that handles any range type beyond just time & serial, check out https://github.com/moat/range_partitioning. Note that if you are doing time/serial, the methods used in pg_partman are much more efficient and will provide better performance. But if you need greater flexibility, the range_partitioning extension should work very well for you.

WARNING: The pg_partman background worker is currently incompatible with PostgreSQL 9.6. It runs fine in 9.4 and 9.5. I'm still working on trying to figure out what the issue is. If you must upgrade to 9.6 before this issue is fixed, you can disable the background worker by removing the entry for it in shared_preload_libraries and restarting postgres. Instead schedule the run_maintenance() plpgsql function to run via another scheduler method (cron). Note that the background worker technically runs in 9.6 and won't cause errors, but it essentially ignores the interval configuration option, runs without pause and will very quickly fill up your postgres logs or cause excessive system load.

You can also set other control variables for the BGW in postgresql.conf. "dbname" is required at a minimum for maintenance to run on the given database(s). These can be added/changed at anytime with a simple reload. See the documentation for more details. An example with some of them:

Log into PostgreSQL and run the following commands. Schema is optional (but recommended) and can be whatever you wish, but it cannot be changed after installation. If you're using the BGW, the database cluster can be safely started without having the extension first created in the configured database(s). You can create the extension at any time and the BGW will automatically pick up that it exists without restarting the cluster (as long as shared_preload_libraries was set) and begin running maintenance as configured.

CREATE SCHEMA partman;
CREATE EXTENSION pg_partman SCHEMA partman;

Functions must either be run as a superuser or you can set the ownership of the extension functions to a superuser role and they will also work (SECURITY DEFINER is set).

I've received many requests for being able to install this extension on Amazon RDS. RDS does not support third-party extension management outside of the ones it has approved and provides itself. If you'd like to see this extension available there, please send an email to rds-postgres-extensions-request@amazon.com requesting that they include it. The more people that do so, the more likely it will happen!

Version 1.8.8 of pg_partman is still available on github if you're running a version of PostgreSQL older than 9.4. Note however that no further updates (bug fixes, features, etc) are being released for the 1.x series. If you encounter any issues, please plan for upgrading your database to 9.4+ so that you can use the 2.x series of pg_partman.

UPGRADE

Run "make install" same as above to put the script files and libraries in place. Then run the following in PostgreSQL itself:

ALTER EXTENSION pg_partman UPDATE TO '<latest version>';

If you are doing a pg_dump/restore and you've upgraded pg_partman in place from previous versions, it is recommended you use the --column-inserts option when dumping and/or restoring pg_partman's configuration tables. This is due to ordering of the configuration columns possibly being different (upgrades just add the columns onto the end, whereas the default of a new install may be different).

If upgrading from 1.x to 2.x, please see the CHANGELOG or the notes in the update script itself for additional instructions for updating your trigger functions to the newer version and other important considerations for the update.

EXAMPLE

First create a parent table with an appropriate column type for the partitioning type you will do. Apply all defaults, indexes, constraints, privileges & ownership to the parent table and they will be inherited to newly created child tables automatically (not already existing partitions, see docs for how to fix that). Here's one with columns that can be used for either

This will turn your table into a parent table and premake 4 future partitions and also make 4 past partitions. To make new partitions for time-based partitioning, schedule the run_maintenance() function to run periodically or use the background worker settings in postgresql.conf (the latter is recommended). Serial based partitioning does not always require run_maintenance() (see doc file below).

This should be enough to get you started. Please see the pg_partman.md file in the doc folder for more information on the types of partitioning supported and what the parameters in the create_parent() function mean.

TESTING

This extension can use the pgTAP unit testing suite to evalutate if it is working properly (http://www.pgtap.org).
WARNING: You MUST increase max_locks_per_transaction above the default value of 64. For me, 128 has worked well so far. This is due to the sub-partitioning tests that create/destroy several hundred tables in a single transaction. If you don't do this, you risk a cluster crash when running subpartitioning tests.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

PG Partition Manager (pg_partman) is released under the PostgreSQL License, a liberal Open Source license, similar to the BSD or MIT licenses.

Copyright (c) 2016 OmniTI, Inc.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE AUTHOR SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE AUTHOR HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.